Commitment to Education

Celebrating Wisconsin's Forestry Centennial

Wisconsin has a rich forest resource today thanks to the reforestation efforts of the past century. In 2004, Wisconsin will be celebrating 100 years of professional forestry in Wisconsin. This landmark year provides a good opportunity to think about many changes. The state population in 1900 was 2.1 million; today it is 5.4 million. The early European settlers thought the forest was an impediment and focused on clearing the land for agriculture and development. Today many acres of idle farmland have been planted back to forests and citizens of today value the forest for the many benefits it provides. In 1900, only remnants of forest remained in Wisconsin; today, 16 million acres of forest cover 46% of the state!

What hasn't changed over the years is our dependence on wood. Like our ancestors, trees provide the raw material for much of our daily life. From houses to furniture to paper, wood products are everywhere. And the good news is that Wisconsin is growing more wood than is being harvested every year and our forests are helping meet the growing demands for not only wood products but a wide array of recreational pursuits as well as needs for wildlife habitat and biological diversity.

Forestry Education - A long-term commitment

Another constant over the years has been forestry's commitment to education!

In fact, Wisconsin's annual celebration of Arbor Day began in the late 1800s and 2004 will mark the 121st year that Wisconsin school children have observed this special day set aside for planting trees and reflecting on their importance. In 1970, Wisconsin and the nation celebrated the first Earth Day. The time period between Earth Day (April 22) and Arbor Day (the last Friday in April) is celebrated as Forest Appreciation Week in Wisconsin.

In the 1920s, state 4-H leader Wakelin "Ranger Mac" McNeel had a vision for Wisconsin's resources - for both the land and the youth. McNeel sent students and teachers out across the state to reclaim the cut-over, burned-over forest land with shovel, tree seedlings and these words: "Attitudes are not born; they are acquired by experiences. Nor are habits born, they are acquired by training."

School forests are another testament to forestry's early commitment to education. The idea of school forests was introduced to Wisconsin in 1925 by the late Dean Russell of the University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture. In 1927 he spearheaded legislation that permitted school districts to own land for forestry programs. Motivated by this legislation, McNeel and his colleague Fred Trenk (a UW-Extension Forester) and the people of Forest County, Wisconsin adopted the idea of school forests to promote a much-needed reforestation program. Within the year, three tracts of land were donated or purchased for the first school forests in Wisconsin - in Laona, Crandon and Wabeno. They were dedicated in the Spring of 1928. Today the program has grown to more than 400 school forests comprising over 67,000 acres scattered across Wisconsin in 67 counties.

Another boost was provided by the 1935 Wisconsin Conservation Education Statute. The legislation requires "adequate instruction in the conservation of natural resources" in order to be certified to teach science or social studies. It also requires that conservation of natural resources be taught in public elementary and high schools. Wisconsin was the first state in the U.S. to have such a requirement. Two years later, the Wisconsin Conservation Department (now the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources) hired their first conservation education specialist.

In 1944, Trees for Tomorrow was founded as an independent, nonprofit organization by a group of Wisconsin paper and electric utility companies for the purpose of reforesting northern Wisconsin and educating landowners and citizens about the need for proper forest management. The organization used the recovering forests to teach students, their teachers and the public about proper forestry practices.

While the sugar maple (Acer saccharum) was selected as the state tree by school children in 1893, a second vote of school children in Wisconsin's centennial year of 1948 reaffirmed support for the sugar maple and legislators created a new section of the statutes to authorize the designation of official state symbols.

Project Learning Tree, a national program that uses forests as a "window" on the world to increase students' understanding of our environment, was brought to Wisconsin by the Department of Public Instruction in 1977 and the Department of Natural Resources assumed coordination of the program in 1987 with funding from the state forestry program. The Wisconsin DNR - Division of Forestry has also entered into a partnership with the UW-Stevens Point Center for Environmental Education for the development of a Wisconsin-specific K-12 forestry education curriculum. This new program called LEAF (Learning, Experiences and Activities in Forestry) will debut in 2004 during the "Year of Wisconsin Forestry."

In 1990, the Wisconsin Legislature created the Wisconsin Environmental Education Board (WEEB) to administer an annual grants program and assist state agencies and organizations in identifying needs and priorities for environmental education. Since 1998 the state's forestry account has provided $190,000 per year to fund forestry education programs and is now providing $380,000 for forestry and school forest projects.

The Wisconsin Association of Environmental Education will celebrate this long-standing and ongoing commitment to forestry education in Wisconsin at their 2004 conference. The meeting theme will be "Growing Toward the Future: 100 Years of Forestry in Wisconsin." It is scheduled for October 28-30, 2004 at the Telemark Resort in Cable. Highlight those dates on the calendar and plan to attend!

Forestry's Future

As we begin the next one hundred years of forestry in Wisconsin, new issues and challenges face the forest resource. It is clear that we must continue to improve both the management of our forest resource - from the nearest city street to the far corners of the state - and our understanding and appreciation of this precious resource. Urban residents who help care for the trees in their yards and neighborhoods, the 262,000 private woodland owners in Wisconsin who practice good forest stewardship and each of us as consumers are all guardians of the precious forest resource. All of us need to take responsibility for passing this gift to future generations.

Through the practice of sustainable forestry, Wisconsin's dynamic forest resource can continue to provide ecological, social and economic benefits to meet the needs of today and future generations as well!